Communism.Was it really invented by Karl Marx

[Cavalstan]

Lately,communism has been getting alot of hate.Also,people say[even textbooks]that Karl Marx founded it.However,a thought has come to me:did he really found communism?Was it really Russia who was first to become communist?If you really think about it,anciet civilizations did the same.So my question is,was Russia really the first communist country,or has the idea been around since the beginning of civilization?

[The Last Platonists]

Read the philosopher Alain Badiou's work.

The sleepers must awaken!

[Milograd]

Communism in name was established by Karl Marx, although I wouldn't doubt that similar concepts existed prior to its conception.

[Jimanistan]

Marx was the founding theorist of what we call Communism.

So, yes. There were some earlier movements that shared traits with 19th century communists, or else otherwise lived in some way communally.

[Vousielle]

There are so many issues here I don't even really know where to begin.

Karl Marx did not invent Communism, he and Engels did however do much to shape the ideology and how people thought about it. The economic system of Communism is very very old, what Marx was writing about was the application of Communism on the scale of an industrialized state such as Germany or England. And he was hardly the first person to advocate Communism in the modern era, he was building off the work of previous philosophers.

[Libetarian Republics]

This belongs in NSG.

Anyway, the concept of Communism wasn't invented by Karl Marx though he was credited to establishing it in name. I'm unaware of any earlier attempts.

[Arnich]

Marx was inspired by various utopian socialist thinkers like fourier, owens before he came up with communism. He felt those ideologies are too peaceful. He wanted a more militant version, that's how he came up with class struggle and so on.

[SovietRepublicofMexico]

Marx laid out the theoretical foundations for the communist movement, drawing inspiration from many utopian socialist thinkers of the era.

Before him, there were many ideas and concepts that shared similarities with Communism, but none were like the Communism we know today.

[Volmachtia]

Communism in name was established by Karl Marx, although I wouldn't doubt that similar concepts existed prior to its conception.

^This.

Village "communes", i.e. self sufficient settlements, have existed since the dawn of human society, as the concept of currency neither existed nor was needed that far back. Of course it's different from industrial Communism, but the case stands.

[Camicon]

Lately,communism has been getting alot of hate.Also,people say[even textbooks]that Karl Marx founded it.However,a thought has come to me:did he really found communism?Was it really Russia who was first to become communist?If you really think about it,anciet civilizations did the same.So my question is,was Russia really the first communist country,or has the idea been around since the beginning of civilization?

Dude, Communism has gotten a lot of hate since the end of the Second World War. This isn't a news to anybody.

[Tubbsalot]

Communism in name was established by Karl Marx, although I wouldn't doubt that similar concepts existed prior to its conception.

Yeah, this. Communism is the typical method of organisation for small societies, so yeah, it's existed since the dawn of humanity (and before then, in Homo genus ancestors and earlier social species).

Dude, Communism has gotten a lot of hate since the end of the Second World War.

And during WW2, for that matter. Ever since the Revolution.

[New Heathera]

I think Marx was really just the first to name it as communism and put it's beliefs on paper.

[Milograd]

Lately,communism has been getting alot of hate.

Communism has been "getting a lot of hate" since the revolution, and arguably even prior to it. The events of World War II and the Cold War only caused it to be more so hated.

[Camicon]

Communism in name was established by Karl Marx, although I wouldn't doubt that similar concepts existed prior to its conception.

Yeah, this. Communism is the typical method of organisation for small societies, so yeah, it's existed since the dawn of humanity (and before then, in Homo genus ancestors and earlier social species).

Dude, Communism has gotten a lot of hate since the end of the Second World War.

And during WW2, for that matter. Ever since the Revolution.

On a world-wide scale though, it only became wide spread after WWII. Don't forget, the Allies were portrayed as a shining beacon of hope and justice, and Communist Russia was a part of that alliance. It's a general rule of thumb not to go bashing your allies during a time a war, but to let your citizenry know how awesome they are.

[1000 Cats]

Marx was inspired by said ancient civilizations, yes. He conceptualized the revolutionary aspect, though, the idea that communism can be imposed (or grown into) by larger society, rather than being the default of smaller societies.

[Abdju]

This is an interesting thread, but it's too damn late here. I will make a proper post tomorrow tho...

But don't forget, guys.. we are always a "Critical Revolutionary Period"(tm). Apparently there aren't any normal, bog standard periods.

[Cavalstan]

This is an interesting thread, but it's too damn late here. I will make a proper post tomorrow tho...

But don't forget, guys.. we are always a "Critical Revolutionary Period"(tm). Apparently there aren't any normal, bog standard periods.

I am warning you,do not copyright this.

[Bontivate]

Contrary to popular belief, communism was invented by Groucho Marx. Karl Marx, the 4th brother, was so desperate for attention that he stole the idea and claimed it to be his own. It wasn't until 2008, when Karl's own journal entries were discovered by historians, that this theory was proven.

[Cameroi]

i don't know what communism is. i know what marxism is. and somebody named marx had something to do with it. and i'm sure they were inspired by many positive principals, and an honest desire to prevent or reduce the terrible things they saw people doing to each other.
socialism however, has been invented and reinvented, by every revealed religious belief ever to have been.
every manifistation appointed by the same invisible and unknowable god, proposed and promated a way of life and of living, that everyone who has found it inconvenient to the short sighted greed they were emotionally attached to, has attempted to depict negatively and at odds with the actual intend, of every revelation of revealed belief.

so no. karl marx did not invent real/egalitarian ethics. he tried to integrate it with keeping the idea, and presumed usefulness, of symbolic value.
nor did invent communalism, syndicalism, utilitarianism, nor any number of things that have been tarred with the meaningless label of "communisim"

who then? adam, abraham, noah,the eighteen in the book of numbers, moses, zoroaster, christ, mohammid, the bab and baha'u'llah, and all the revealers of all the other branches of organized belief which have in this day converged, even as our planet has become one place that must somehow be shared by all of us, if any of us are to remain alive on it.

[Yisrae1]

Communism the formal idea was invented by karl marx, but many people before him has used some sort of it. The dream of equality of the common people has been around since the 1st man picked up a rock tool. I think everyone dreams of the day that we will be as equal as the person beside us and rascism will not even be in our minds. Also guilds were some sort of unions back in the medevil days.

[Scholencia]

Lately,communism has been getting alot of hate.Also,people say[even textbooks]that Karl Marx founded it.However,a thought has come to me:did he really found communism?Was it really Russia who was first to become communist?If you really think about it,anciet civilizations did the same.So my question is,was Russia really the first communist country,or has the idea been around since the beginning of civilization?

Accordring to Marx the first communists countries should be Switzerland and the USA, Russia was undeveloped to make a revolution.

[Vousielle]

Communism the formal idea was invented by karl marx, but many people before him has used some sort of it. The dream of equality of the common people has been around since the 1st man picked up a rock tool. I think everyone dreams of the day that we will be as equal as the person beside us and rascism will not even be in our minds. Also guilds were some sort of unions back in the medevil days.

It's not really an apt comparison, guilds were comprised of both management and labor, essentially, and they were highly undemocratic institutions. There are some exceptions, such as when the profession was so low status that no matter how high you rose in the organization you were still at the bottom of the societal pile (The Florentine wool carders for instance)

[Trotskylvania]

Lately,communism has been getting alot of hate.Also,people say[even textbooks]that Karl Marx founded it.However,a thought has come to me:did he really found communism?Was it really Russia who was first to become communist?If you really think about it,anciet civilizations did the same.So my question is,was Russia really the first communist country,or has the idea been around since the beginning of civilization?

Marx didn't invent communism. Nor did he ever claim to. The term was invented before Marx was born, and further, the idea is older than the words used now to express it. Societies before the rise of the state were pretty universally communist, and there were many different communistic societies throughout history.

Most common were religious radicals in the Middle Ages and reformation, especially among Anabaptists.

[Trotskylvania]

Communism in name was established by Karl Marx, although I wouldn't doubt that similar concepts existed prior to its conception.

No. At best, Marx and Engels popularized the term communist in the English and German languages. The word itself, denoting a particular social organization, had been used in French political contexts since the French Revolution, denoting the Enrages of the Paris Commune, who championed the commune's social organization of participatory democracy and communal ownership. Hence, they were communistes.

But the social form was older than that by far. The communistes among the Enrages merely modernized a long existing communal impulse.

Marx was inspired by various utopian socialist thinkers like fourier, owens before he came up with communism. He felt those ideologies are too peaceful. He wanted a more militant version, that's how he came up with class struggle and so on.

Not really. Marx criticized utopians for trying to avoid politics, and engage in little social experiments rather than change anything fundamental. Marxism is about a theory of history, and the role that class struggle will play in creating a new society. Violence may be the midwife of the revolution, in his own terms, but as he correctly noted, violence is also what sustains the existing class dictatorship.

Communism the formal idea was invented by karl marx, but many people before him has used some sort of it. The dream of equality of the common people has been around since the 1st man picked up a rock tool. I think everyone dreams of the day that we will be as equal as the person beside us and rascism will not even be in our minds. Also guilds were some sort of unions back in the medevil days.

See above. He provided the beginnings of a social science to understand class struggle, and how communism might be a natural outcome of historical processes, but he didn't formalize the idea.

[Risottia]

Lately,communism has been getting alot of hate.Also,people say[even textbooks]that Karl Marx founded it.However,a thought has come to me:did he really found communism?

Of course not, nor did he claim to have done so.
He just gave "communism" a stricter meaning based on Hegelian philosophy, and relative to the context of the bourgoise society.

Was it really Russia who was first to become communist?

In the strict Marxist meaning, no, it was Paris in 1870.